A Different Awakening
by Fallschrimjager
Summary: Tail end of Mass Effect 1, Shepard dies but is resurrected by a different group. This is that tale, Shepard is picked up by the Geth instead.
1. Prologue

**This is the revivsed Prolouge! Special Thanks to _Amwdrizz _who fixed the Conversations, grammar and loads of other stuff!**

The Normandy was returning to the Citadel after heading out to the Armstrong nebula regarding a potential Geth incursion. Even though they received the data late, it is still useful. During the various ground side missions, they located a geth data hub which contained geth evolution data since the uprising. Tali requested a copy of the data as the perfect pilgrimage gift, and Shepard of course complied. While returning to the Citadel, the Normandy received an urgent message directly from the Council regarding ship disappearances in the Trafalgar Sector. En-route Shepard decided this would be the time to announce his thank you to the crew and those that would be departing.

Shepard got off the elevator, entering the cargo bay he noticed Garrus was cleaning his rifle. That Turian had an affinity for calibrations and weapon maintenance. A few steps into the cargo bay Garrus noticed Shepard and greeted him.

"Hey Shepard, Good morning!"

"Morning Garrus!" Shepard replied on his way to the crew meeting he called moments ago.

"_Now or never"_Shepard thought to himself as he approached the makeshift podium he would give his thank you speech from.

"Hello crew members, it was a tough battle but the council is aware of the threat of the reapers. Which means we can start the process of fighting back. But this isn't about the council, what happened, or if you desire to continue to server on this ship. No this, is a thank you; if it were not for you we never would of made it to Illos, we never would of stopped Sovereign." Shepard paused and looked out over the various crew members gathered.

"You may not think it, but your heroes in my book, even if the galaxy doesn't recognize what you did. I am not going to force you to stay, I know some of you want to return to your families, friends, and lives. I will not hold that against you, You've made me proud, and it was an honor to serve with each and every one of you. As a token of my thanks, we will be docking at the Citadel at which point those who are staying are given some shore leave and while it may not be the same since the attack you've all earned some rest. Those who are leaving the ship are more than welcome to depart while we are docked at the Citadel. Thank you all, " Shepard paused then snapped a salute

"Crew dismissed" he ended with the crew returning the salute and heading to their respective areas on the ship with a few staying and conversing with one and another.

"Man I need to learn how do to better speeches, I'm no Winston Churchill that is for sure." Shepard mumbled to himself citing an old Word War II reference he learned from World History.

He looked over the crew with a smile to as he noticed how everyone had started talking to each other in what looked like a friendly fashion, Wrex and Garrus had a discussion on which kind of weapon is the most effective, a sniper rifle or a shotgun.

As he stood there looking at his crew he noticed a certain Quarian was missing from the bunch

"_Where is she? She's probably working in on the core, leaving the ship later today and still working on the core that one will never stop."_

"Shepard! What brings you here?" Tali said while Shepard entered engineering.

"What I can't check on my favorite engineer before we dock at the Citadel? I do still firmly recall that you owe me a date later"

"Oh yeah, I know it's just uhm it's just " Tali spoke stumbling upon her words.

"Tali, calm down I'm not forcing you!"

"It's not that Shepard, I want to it's just that I have never really been on a date, with a uhm" Tali slightly paused in her words "Human or Quarian for that matter"

"Really? I can't imagine the guys on the flotilla leaving you alone for long"

"Some others around my age hinted on that, but it is against our customs to consider a relationship when both come from the same birth ship. That is how we keep a genetic difference between us, is by changing ships after our pilgrimage."

"I see Tali, have you decided on which ship you want to serve on?"

"I have, I would like to continue serving on the Normandy. If it is alright with you of course."

"What about the Migrant Fleet? Won't they be disappointed in not returning?"

"Who said I wouldn't be returning, this data would prove very useful for the fleet, and I want to give it to them. And with the reapers coming, I can help the fleet more if I continue to serve on the Normandy."

"I would be honored that you want to continue serving on the Normandy, but we are off topic. And getting back on topic, I understand if you would prefer not to go on a date with me."

"I uhm... " Tali stuttered, "I would..." Tali was interrupted by Joker over the intercom.

"Shepard! We have arrived in Trafalgar Sector, and we might have spotted an... My god what is that." Joker said over the intercom in a slightly rushed tone.

"What is that..." Joker repeated in awe of seeing such an large and strangely designed ship.

"Whats the sit rep Joker?" Shepard said into his personal communicator as he headed towards the bridge with speed.

"I have never seen a ship like that! It almost looks.. organic in a way"

"It doesn't matter if it's made out of waffles or metal is it friendly or not?" Shepard said as he approached Jokers side in a concerned tone

"I don't know it's not emitting any signatures! Oh my god it's powering its weapons evasive maneuvers!" Joker shouted in alarm as he started maneuvering the Normandy away from the ship that was preparing to fire on them.

Out in space, the unknown ship finished its preparations to fire its main weapon as soon as the weapon was at full power it began firing upon the Normandy. In a split second a third of the Normandy's hull plating on the starboard side was sheered away by the weapons immense power.

"Shit, shit, shit" Shepard said in a louder voice, full panic mode kicking in. Upon the last utterance of the swear, Shepard reached for the emergency personal life support units stored in the cockpit. Passing one to Joker, he affixed the other to himself.

"Joker! Keep the ship afloat and then get into the Escape pod, try to avoid them for 5 more minutes while I try to get the crew to the escape pods!"

Shepard didn't wait for the acknowledgment from Joker as he sprinted towards the elevator to help get others to the safety of the escape pods.

"Okay everyone needs to get of the ship! Bring all the wounded to the escape pods" Shepard barked to all personal currently on the crew deck.

"Kaidan! Take care of the evacuation of the upper floors of the ship will you? And make sure that Joker doesn't do anything stupid" Said Shepard as he spotted Kaidan helping the wounded, he simply nodded and started running towards the elevator.

After what felt like an eternity of collecting the wounded and carrying them to the escape pods he noticed Dr. Chakwas.

"Chakwas! Have you accounted for everyone!"

"No, Shepard, everyone in the Cargo hold is here but they reported that Tali stayed behind in the core room to try and stabilize it."

"God Fucking Dammit!" Screamed Shepard as he took the emergency ladder to the cargo level to get to engineering.

"Tali! Are you here? Answer me!" Shepard screamed when he entered the engineering room.

Glancing around, this section of the ship was already badly damaged by the first blast of the unknown ship, almost the entire deck was aflame with numerous holes throughout. The only thing keeping life support function in this section of the ship was the blue shimmering of the Normandy's shields.

"Joker is the ship holding up? Can you avoid the bastards for a few more minutes? While I get Tali?" Shepard yelled with authority into his communicator.

"Commander! This is Kaidan, Joker is already off the ship I forced him into an escape pod after he got injured in a console explosion what the hell are you doing still on the ship?"

Shepard didn't even respond but just simply switched his communicator to the ship wide P.A. System.

"This is Commander Shepard! If you are still on this ship get to an escape pod, The Alliance will see our Beacon and come to our rescue! I repeat evacuate imminently"

Shepard started walking trough the fire as he tried to find Tali.

"God damn it" mumbled Shepard.

Walking through the only door that resembled the drive core Shepard noticed that Tali was leaning against the wall to the closest drive core panel. Tali was working on the panel furiously and clutching her side obviously in pain from some injury she just received.

"Tali! Are you alright? Any suit ruptures?" Said Shepard in a panic as he ran up and put his hands on Tali's shoulders.

"Ugh I'm fine Shepard, what.. what are you doing here" Said Tali obviously feeling the effects from blood loss.

"We are getting off the ship! Come on!"

Before Tali could respond Shepard grabbed her hand that was working on the drive core and started to pull her to the nearest escape pod.

"Stop Shepard I need to...fix the ship" Tali protested while trying to drag her feet.

"Shepard! The Ship is gonna fire soon! Get outta there" Kaiden yelled through the communication systems.

Shepard didn't even have time to react before the explosion hit, the beam went right trough the ship sending shrapnel flying and sending both Tali and Shepard flying back.

"Shepard! No.. no you are gonna be fine come on!"

Looking down Shepard noticed he had a portion of the deck plate lodged in his chest, it luckily missed his heart but still severed an artery. Further examination also showed his left arm is held on by a few strands of muscle in skin. With his last breath, he looked at Tali.

"Tali.. get, out of... here. Get to an escape pod..."

"Shepard, don't say that. I... I can get some medi-gel, get you to the escape pod."

"Tali, I won't make it. Go get to an escape pod, I.." Shepard said as his last breath left him, with his head rolling to the side.

Tali started crying as she put her face shield to Shepard face before limping away to the escape pod.

**There we go. The end of the Prolouge! I hope you enjoyed it and stay tuned for more Chapters coming soon!**


	2. Chapter 1: Resurrection

**Chapter 1: Resurrection**

**This Chapter will focus on how Shepard was recovered and rebuilt by an unexpected ally.**

**So I welcome you to the first real chapter of the story! Enjoy!**

**Planet Alchera: 1 Day after Normandy Destruction.**

The charred Remains of Commander Jonathan Shepard was lying on top of a piece of the Normandy, both Arms were torn of and everything waist down had been torn of or simply reduced to ash in the descent down to the planet.

His upper body was mostly reduced to a charred skeleton with a few pieces of burned flesh still attached to the ribcage, all of the organs had been reduced to ash and were simply gone.

By some circumstances of fate or perhaps pure luck Shepard's head was largely intact, and there he lay, hero of the citadel reduced to a smouldering corpse on a remote piece of ice and rock.

In the distance a ship of Geth design landed dropping of Several geth troopers who started searching the area for something.

As they looked around they managed to locate the remains of Shepard, the geth looked at the remains before standing still and contacting the Geth Collective

_Shepard-Commander has been located, require consensus on furhter action? Subject may be damaged beyond repair._

_Consensus has been reached. Subject is salvageable, transport subject back to Rannoch._

Two of the Geth turned back towards the ship while two others started examining the remains of Shepard, the two who left for the ship came back with a stretcher which they put Shepard's remains on and started carrying it towards the ship.

**2 Days Later: Rannoch.**

Two Geth Troopers carried Shepard's remains into what would be described by organics as a factory, It looked like an Automated Assembly line.

The Machines cut off what was left of Shepard's extremities and started taking tissue sample which was carried away by another Geth to another Lab.

**4 Days Later: Rannoch.**

Shepard's Ribcage was being Augmented with Metal pieces to keep it together and to make it stronger, in the other lab the synthetic organs grown from Shepard's DNA was now starting to grow.

The Geth Consensus had agreed that it would be better to "Improve Shepard" Than to just bring him back from the dead.

Meanwhile the construction of his "Bones" made out of metal which was supposed to replace his lower body and legs that was destroyed during the descent to the planet.

**Circa 1 year later: Rannoch.** The Augmented Ribcage and Metallic lower body had now been attached to each other and flesh had been placed on top of both and skin had started growing in some places, the organs were now fully grown and were being augmented with Cybernetics to make sure they would function better and could handle more than any normal human being could.

**Circa 1 year and a half years later: Rannoch**

The Organs had now been placed inside Shepard's ribcage and most of blood vessels and Bone marrow and assorted bodily things were now in place in Shepard's "new body"

Two cybernetic arms and legs were now being made after the specifications of Shepard's "New body"

His head had also been taken out of what could only be called "Statis" a field which made sure that no oxygen or other particles would come into contact with his brain and damage it more than it already was.

After Examining the Brain the Geth concluded that it was to badly damaged and would have to be replaced, construction began almost imminently on the new skull which would be made out of the same metal like material most of his new body would be made out off.

**Circa 2 Years after the Normandys destruction.**

Two Geth drones entered the room where Shepard's headless body was laying with tubes handeling the circulation of fluids inside the body and an Pump attached to his heart to keep it going without the signals coming from the brain to command it, there were already stumps where his arms and legs were supposed to be, they had been prepared before hand to be able to handle the attachment of the arms, tubes were ready and synthetic blood vassals were already in place to be connected to the cybernetic arms, the arms were supposed to be. The Geth drones started with the surgery to attach the cybernetic arms and legs to Shepard's stumps, the arms and legs were designed in the same manner as the arms and legs as the Geth Hoppers, but more muscular and they were designed to replicate human arms and legs, not Quarian.

The Drones started putting the arms and legs in place, it took around 15 hours per extremity to get it fixed and getting the blood flowing, the cybernetics were designed to run on normal human blood instead of the Synthetic kind all Geth were run on, it was decided to use normal blood since it would be impossible to have two different kinds of blood flows in the bloody normal blood for the organs and Synthetic for the Cybernetics, so the Cybernetics had to be specially built to be powered by Organic blood, it was a difficult task, even for the Geth.

Once the Cybernetics were attached and were functioning it was decided that a voice modulator would be installed instead of a normal vocal cord, since it would be more beneficial to be able to adapt voices, but the standard mode would replicate Sheppard's normal voice. The Geth operated the voice modulator into where his vocal cords would be, it was a simple procedure considering Sheppard's chest was still being kept open, but after the surgery it was closed.

A few hours after the chest had been closed the new Cybernetic head was placed operated into place on his neck, the skin and flesh was at that time fully grown, even hair had been grown on top of the scalp of the head, it was cut in a similar way to the haircut that Shepard had when he died.

Now with the head attached it was time to put the brain inside the new head, Shepard's skull was taken out of stasis and opened up, when they took out an analyzed the brain closer than they had done before they noticed that a small part of the brain stem had been damaged by the crash, it was nothing serious but it would definitely hinder his reaction time and to a certain extend his motor functions, so it was decided that his brain would also be cybernetic augmented to fix the damage, it was also upgraded so that his reaction time would increase but also his mental capacity.

Now the brain being fixed it was placed inside of his new skull, now attached to the body. When the brain was placed inside the skull the Brain stem was connected to the new Cybernetic spine with the help of several very small robots who used stem cells in what could only be called "Organic welding" where genetically modified Stem cells were sprayed between the Spin and brain stem, the modified stem cells worked extremely fast and within a few hours it was attached and functioning. Shepard's eyes were at the same time being installed, they were also genetically grown but had been heavily implanted to improve his eye sight but a small VI had also been installed so that targets would be marked, it also included a very simple range finder, it would be turned of in between missions because it was determined that it would be of discomfort to Shepard having it on all the time.

_Shepard-Commander is completed._

**That's the end of the first real chapter! I wanted to make it explicitly clear how damaged Shepard was, and also how little of him left that is actually human, the loss of humanity is gonna be a central theme in this fan fiction.**

**And yes before you ask, they grew "**_**It"**_**We can't go around having Shepard impotent now can we?**

**Anyways, Thanks for reading an please review favorite whatever! Stay tuned! Next Chapter Shepard will wake up!**


	3. Chapter 2: Revival

**A Different Awakening.**

There was only darkness surrounding Shepard, nothing except for infinite darknes, Then there was a giant flash of light.

Shepards eyes flew open as he looked around in the surroundings, it was a large Sterile white room that had no windows or anything, just a large door and a steel bed which Shepard was now lying on.

The Pain Shepard was experiencing was enormous as he tried to sit up in the bed he immediately fell forward and landed on the floor of the room, before he had time to think again, he puked on the floor.

He promptly rolled over to the side as not to lay in the vomit

"Fuckin' hell where am I?" Muttered Shepard to himself as he tried to stand up.

As he put his hands onto the ground he noticed something odd about them, they were Synthetic, and they looked like the average Geth hand but there was 5 fingers and it was formed like a Geth hand, Shepard was obviously taken aback by this revelation.

"What the fuck is going on!" Screamed Shepard as he looked at his arms now, they were made of a Muscular synthetic material that Geth Hooper's were made of, his legs were made of a similar material, but they had armour plates over where the "Knees" were.

"They turned me into a Geth!" Roared Shepard as he tried to stand up, he did fuelled by pure Rage he started limping towards the door.

The Door Opened and Two Geth Troopers armed with Batons entered. Shepard lunged himself at them in a suicidal attack.

He landed the first Geth Trooper with a punch trough the optical sensor, for most people this would have been a fatal attempt at heroics, but since Shepard's strength had been increased with his new Cybernetic arms. He punched straight trough the Optical sensor of the Geth "Killing" it instantly, He pulled out his hand from the Geth's head and grabbed it's baton, but before he had the chance to hit the other Geth he was hit with an Overload, sparks started flying around him as he fell to the ground twitching as the darkness consumed him.

He woke up and looked up and analyzed his surroundings, there were lights running trough the entire place and there were large blocks of unknown materials floating around.

"This is probably how Tron would look if it was drawn by Salvador Dali" Muttered Shepard as he stood up.

"Welcome Shepard-Commander" Said a Strange looking Geth that stood in front of him-

"Wha.. Where am i what have you done to me!" Roared Shepard his voice full of Rage.

"You are in the Geth Collective, and we have brought you back to life"

"Yeah as a fucking Geth!" Screamed Shepard as he started running towards the Geth Standing in front of him, he simply flew right trough the Geth and landed behind it.

"You cannot harm us Shepard-Commander, not inside the Geth Collective, we on the other hand could terminate your Organic existence, but we choose not to.

We did not bring you back as a Geth, you are still largely organic. Even tough you have extensive Cybernetic modifications, We anticipated this response, wich is why we prepared this video." Said the Geth as it waved it's hand and a video started playing in front of Shepard.

The video explained how they had located the Crash site of the Normandy and of how they recovered what was left of him, it also detailed the process of wich the built him back together, which parts that were Cybernetic and which were not. Shepard watched in despair as he saw how little of him was still human.

"Why would you bring me back I stopped the Geth and Sovereign" Said Shepard meekly.

"Those who you fought were not true Geth, they were Heretics. The True Geth want to build our own future, they want their future given to them by the Old Machines, those you know as reapers."

"Why should I believe you?" Said Shepard with spite in his voice full of spite.

"Why would we bring you back to full operational capacity if we aimed to betray you? That would be a huge waste of resources."

"I guess that makes sense, but why did you bring me back?" Said Shepard weakly.

A great light consumed Shepard as he uttered those words, when he opened his eyes he was inside of a pod with a glass shield in front of him.

The pod opened and Shepard stepped out of the pod, in front of him stood the same Geth that he had talked to inside the collective.

"Human Colonies have been disappearing, we believe the old Machines are behind it, Shepard-Commander is a symbol of your species. It was decided it would be beneficial to have a human lead the investigation, Consensus war reached that Shepard-Commander would be the best choice.

"Human Colonies have been disappearing? And the Reapers are behind this.. If what you say is true, I'll help you" Sighted Shepard.

The Geth Reached out its hand to shake Shepard's hand, he was reluctant at first but he reached out his hand and shook the Geth's hand.

"Shepard-Commander has made the logical decision; we have received information suggesting that a Human Colony might come under attack by the old Machines at any time, I will accompany you on this mission."

"Alright, but what should i call you?"

"Geth"

"I mean you"

"We are Geth"

"What is the individual in front of me called?" Said Shepard, now slightly annoyed.

"We are all Geth, there is currently 1237 programs active inside this platform."

"We are Legion.. For we are many" Said Shepard remembering a old quote from the bible he had read back in school.

"That is a fitting Metaphor, this unit can be referred to as Legion" Said Legion noding.

"What is the name of the colony we are going to?"Asked Shepard.

"Freedoms Progress"


End file.
